kimc911

Q: Photos Completely Useless to Me

The hype over Photos in the months preceding its release was that it would be a powerhouse app, the only one you would ever need, a melding of Aperture and iPhotos of all the best parts.  What a load of crap!

 

I have tens of thousands of photos organized by File Name, which was imported in some Metadata mess, but which I can not sort my photos by, and which I cannot view as a "Title".  My whole library hinges on the File Name and my ability to organize my photos my File Name. 


Stars: I use Stars to signify priority of my photos, and when a priority level of a photo changes, so does the Star rating.  I don't want to have to dream up Key Words in place of my stars.


In the past I have imported photos from both my iPhone and my camera, imported them into iPhoto, deleted them from my iPhone, exported them to an external folder where at my leisure I carefully edit and assign the appropriate File Name to each photo, once complete, the Photos were brought back into iPhoto ... File Names and all. 


They were then sorted and organized by File Name ... do you see a pattern here?


I need to view the File Name as a title so that I know which photo is which, because on the surface many look so very similar.  I then synch select photos back to iCloud and into various albums on my iPad.  Had a system down with iPhoto, and apparently it is a system which does not exist on Photos, which apparently I need to use now to get my photos synched back onto my iPad and iPhone as needed.


Unless someone can show me that I'm just stupid and not figuring this out, and screwing around trying to deal with this is costing me time and money I don't have ... this new Photos app is completely useless to me and Apple ought to consider trashing this thing, bring back iPhotos on the Mac and convert iOS to iPhotos on iPhone and iPad.


There ... I've said it.  I've said what everyone else is thinking.


File Names people ... It's as simple as File Names as Titles

Posted on Apr 24, 2015 3:11 PM

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Q: Photos Completely Useless to Me

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Apr 24, 2015 3:18 PM in response to kimc911
    Level 10 (84,210 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 24, 2015 3:18 PM in response to kimc911

    Then just keep using iPhoto - nothing there has changed - ignore Photos until it fits you needs

     

    LN

  • by fourBYfour,Helpful

    fourBYfour fourBYfour Apr 24, 2015 4:18 PM in response to kimc911
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 24, 2015 4:18 PM in response to kimc911

    Went through the most traumatic change to Photos ver 1.0  What a load of absolute nonsense. There was no need to move away from iPhoto. These days pictures are our most valuable collateral on our computers and the Photos ver 1.0 app made my existing repository of over 30,000 pics almost uselss. I could not even search on Keywords to find the pics I was looking for. Unbelievable that instead of INNOVATING and making things easier to use, your developers are going in the opposite direction.

     

    Thankfully iPhoto is still in my Apps and although Photos ver 1.0 mucked my library up. I can still use it to find older pics in a meaningful way.  Here is where you guys (Apple Photo Developers) totally get an F grade.
    - No way to search on my existing Keywords which I had painstakingly put in over many years to organize my albums
    - No warning to users about reverting back the photo library. "Mr/Ms. Photo User this new Photos ver 1.0 program is going to muck up your existing iPhoto Library. And we the Apple Developers who probably got their advanced technology degrees in mail have no way of undoing this. So you are mucked, we mucked you, we rolled out a bad product ."
    - Pics and folders are all unorganized now. What a freaking mess.

     

    Shame on Apple.

  • by Ziatron,

    Ziatron Ziatron Apr 24, 2015 4:31 PM in response to kimc911
    Level 4 (3,924 points)
    Apple Watch
    Apr 24, 2015 4:31 PM in response to kimc911
    a melding of Aperture and iPhotos of all the best parts

     

    Nowhere was Photos ever offered as a replacement for Aperture.

     

    Apple has decided to get out of the professional photo software business.   Photos is mostly about being able to share images across your various devices using Apple's servers.

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Apr 24, 2015 4:33 PM in response to kimc911
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Apr 24, 2015 4:33 PM in response to kimc911

    kimc911 wrote:

     

    The hype over Photos in the months preceding its release was that it would be a powerhouse app, the only one you would ever need, a melding of Aperture and iPhotos of all the best parts.  What a load of crap!

     

    I have tens of thousands of photos organized by File Name, which was imported in some Metadata mess, but which I can not sort my photos by, and which I cannot view as a "Title".  My whole library hinges on the File Name and my ability to organize my photos my File Name. 


    Stars: I use Stars to signify priority of my photos, and when a priority level of a photo changes, so does the Star rating.  I don't want to have to dream up Key Words in place of my stars.


    In the past I have imported photos from both my iPhone and my camera, imported them into iPhoto, deleted them from my iPhone, exported them to an external folder where at my leisure I carefully edit and assign the appropriate File Name to each photo, once complete, the Photos were brought back into iPhoto ... File Names and all. 


    They were then sorted and organized by File Name ... do you see a pattern here?


    I need to view the File Name as a title so that I know which photo is which, because on the surface many look so very similar.  I then synch select photos back to iCloud and into various albums on my iPad.  Had a system down with iPhoto, and apparently it is a system which does not exist on Photos, which apparently I need to use now to get my photos synched back onto my iPad and iPhone as needed.


    Unless someone can show me that I'm just stupid and not figuring this out, and screwing around trying to deal with this is costing me time and money I don't have ... this new Photos app is completely useless to me and Apple ought to consider trashing this thing, bring back iPhotos on the Mac and convert iOS to iPhotos on iPhone and iPad.


    There ... I've said it.  I've said what everyone else is thinking.


    File Names people ... It's as simple as File Names as Titles

    Why use it then? Use iPhoto still as I am doing. I am still running Aperture also. I have no interest in Photos as yet. But at least I read the release notes on it properly first, which you obviously failed to do.

     

    Pete

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Apr 24, 2015 6:51 PM in response to fourBYfour
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Apr 24, 2015 6:51 PM in response to fourBYfour

    fourBYfour wrote:

    - No way to search on my existing Keywords which I had painstakingly put in over many years to organize my albums

    Works fine on my system. Also, my iPhoto Library was not "mucked up" -- I can & do use both Photos & iPhoto, even simultaneously, on my iMac without problems or interactions.

     

    Regarding organizing photos by filename (or anything else related to metadata stored in the file system rather than embedded in the photo files themselves), I realized several years ago that was a limited & more importantly fragile way of doing that. For one thing, it isn't very portable -- unless you can create 'sidecar' files, some or all of the metadata won't be retained if a photo is copied to a drive using a different file system.

     

    iPhoto did users no favors in this respect because its 'helpful' feature of displaying filenames if the photo did not include an embedded title obscured the difference between filenames & photo titles, which are actually two very different things.

     

    Once I figured that out (& why apps like Photoshop don't rely on filesystem metadata for organization either) I bit the bullet & made sure all my iPhoto important items were properly tagged with titles, keywords, etc. It took a while, but I'm glad I did it then rather than waiting -- sooner or later support for filesystem based organizational schemes is going to be hard to find because it isn't portable, lacks the ability to support modern extensible metadata standards like XMP, & if the filesystem gets damaged it may be difficult or impossible to restore the metadata stored in it with even the most powerful data recovery software.

     

    Stay with that scheme if you want, but don't be surprised if it becomes increasingly difficult & problematic to use it with other apps, including those not made by Apple.

  • by EveryUserName HasBeenTaken,

    EveryUserName HasBeenTaken EveryUserName HasBeenTaken Apr 26, 2015 4:41 AM in response to kimc911
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 26, 2015 4:41 AM in response to kimc911

    I am laugh my a** off. My people ! Welcome to the **** which has become my life.

     

    I lost all the input data the iPhoto required, which means I need to retag all my 'faces', retag all colors to each file, and reorganize my albums, because no album successfully migrated.

     

    This is my suggestion...Yes, get used to it, iPhotos is not going to work much longer.

    Yes you still have it.

    go Finder > applications > iPhoto.app > dble click

    Select icon, right click ADD TO DOCK

    now you haves access to your iPhoto

     

    Then, select each album individually - and copy them into a new folder on your desktop and then import each folder one at a time making a new album in Photo before you add the new images.

    This seems to be the easiest way....

    Apple is no help, I spoke to two different guys, and neither knew that this was an issue.

    I've lost about 500 images for 'metadata' reasons ? Whatever that means ? But I don't know which files because just like you, if they haven't properly been recorded by changing the file name from a serial number to a 'word' system, I have no idea what those picture are. So I have to reorganize my entire library of over 7000 pictures, video files, and mixed media....

    There is no easy solution from Apple - nothing !

    I'm so angry !

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Apr 26, 2015 4:43 AM in response to EveryUserName HasBeenTaken
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Apr 26, 2015 4:43 AM in response to EveryUserName HasBeenTaken

    Yes, we have all noticed.

     

    iPhoto to Photo > The journey ...

     

    Pete

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 26, 2015 5:15 AM in response to kimc911
    Level 10 (105,761 points)
    iLife
    Apr 26, 2015 5:15 AM in response to kimc911
    I have tens of thousands of photos organized by File Name, which was imported in some Metadata mess, but which I can not sort my photos by, and which I cannot view as a "Title".  My whole library hinges on the File Name and my ability to organize my photos my File Name.

    As a work-around - copy the filenames to the titles.  Once text has been written to the titles, Photos can display the titles below the thumbnails.

    i posted a basic Automator workflow to copy the filenames to the title fields. If you want to try it, do it in easy instalments, one moment at a time or so. And don't try it on your main library without making a backup before you try it.

     

    Photos for Mac: Batch Changing the Titles to the Filename

  • by Marilyn Press,

    Marilyn Press Marilyn Press May 2, 2015 4:43 PM in response to kimc911
    Level 1 (39 points)
    May 2, 2015 4:43 PM in response to kimc911

    I agree. I've wasted my time trying to get it to sort the photos in albums that it messed up. Have deleted all of it and have gone back to iPhoto.

  • by notcloudy,

    notcloudy notcloudy May 2, 2015 5:15 PM in response to kimc911
    Level 4 (1,190 points)
    Desktops
    May 2, 2015 5:15 PM in response to kimc911

    The support pages listed are a good starting point to work your way through apple support for PHOTOS.

     

    Use the feed back page to mention to Apple - what you don't like about PHOTOS.

     

    Professionals use PHOTOSHOP or other hight end software (Corel comes to mind). 

     

     

    photos getting started

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204655

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204410

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204414

     

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/

  • by vlad661,

    vlad661 vlad661 May 13, 2015 1:05 PM in response to kimc911
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2015 1:05 PM in response to kimc911

    You are correct, Photos app is useless for anything other than sharing with family, shame on you Apple.  ABSOLUTELY useless for organizing and work flows.  I can't believe that you can't even drag photos from the app to another app or email, what complete bs.

     

    I used to use Aperture, waited for Photos App with anticipation, was disappointed in beta, nothing new in actual release.  I no longer trust that Apple is a good solution for handling photos on more than just a very novice level.  Since they will no longer develop Aperture I made the switch to Adobe Lightroom and am really liking it (especially the control).  It's worth the $150 in my opinion. 

     

    Here is basically what I do, hope this is helpful to anyone, as I am extremely frustrated with Apple regarding photos.

     

    1.  All photos taken with iPhone/iPad are transferred to Lightroom and then deleted from iCloud

     

    2.  I use Lightroom of the master repository of all my original photos.  I do all organizing and editing in Lightroom, which is at least as robust as Aperture.  I like the fact that your photos are organized in standard photos and you have total control over the structure.

     

    3.  I load best photos back into photos app and use the convenience of iCloud to have access to them on all apple devices as well as family sharing.

  • by ICJ777,

    ICJ777 ICJ777 Jul 23, 2015 11:33 PM in response to vlad661
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2015 11:33 PM in response to vlad661

    Worse than Useless.

    Tried to go back to iPhoto (which I actually liked).

    No way  Hose 'a.

     

    Apple approaching Microsoft as world's worst

    with the "we know what's best" attitude.

     

    Not impressed.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 23, 2015 11:38 PM in response to ICJ777
    Level 10 (105,761 points)
    iLife
    Jul 23, 2015 11:38 PM in response to ICJ777

    Tried to go back to iPhoto (which I actually liked).

    No way  Hose 'a.

    Have you tried to update iPhoto to version 9.6.1? That version is fully compatible with Yosemite.

    Get iPhoto 9.6.1 if you didn't update before OS... | Apple Support Communities

  • by ICJ777,

    ICJ777 ICJ777 Jul 24, 2015 1:34 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 24, 2015 1:34 AM in response to léonie

    Worse than Useless.

    Tried to go back to iPhoto (which I actually liked).

    No way  Hose 'a.


    Apple approaching Microsoft as world's worst

    with the "we know what's best" attitude.


    Not impressed.


    Thanks, it appears to be downloading now.

    Incidentally, my annoyance was because i used iPhotos to organise my iphone (photos).

    Photos seems to have removed the ability to display and manage whats on iphone.

    Is it because i cant find it, or is it actually missing in Photos?

    ian

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